


I Won't Let You

by justakidfromhellskitchen



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: M/M, that's pretty much it really, the prequel to Adventures of Charls the Veretian Cloth Merchant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 21:11:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11021691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justakidfromhellskitchen/pseuds/justakidfromhellskitchen





	I Won't Let You

When Nikandros brings news of Makon, it is not of the pleasant kind. Illegal slave trade has bubbled out of black markets, a direct reaction to Damen’s and Laurent’s bans on the slave trade.

As Nikandros delivers the details, Laurent is witness to several vivid emotions flickering over Damen’s face. Laurent’s own immediate reactions are eclipsed by a  dose of shame which has not been scrubbed off even by the hands of time. So it is Laurent who asks the salient questions about the trade route, about Makon’s whereabouts. 

Damen thanks his troubled friend. But after Nikandros bids his leave, there is still a ripple of anger under the awning of Damen’s passive features. This, to him, is personal. Of course, it is. Laurent made it so.

They are alone with only the summer sun beaming inappropriately at them as it floods their cheerful chambers. Tumultuous sheets and a bottle of oil are all the evidence of their affair in the morning, a morning which seems to have been centuries ago. Damen is reduced to a narrow sliver of himself, defined in righteous, muted anger, as he paces the length of their bed chambers. The gold at Damen’s wrist glints more noticeably than usual.

Laurent allows this for the space of ten breaths, controlling his own.  
“You have a plan,” Laurent says, puncturing the silence with the statement, knowing that Damen does not, most probably, have a plan.

“I will ride out to intercept Makon in his route. I will stop him.” Damen’s eyes are ablaze with a heat to contest Akielon summers. “Beyond that, there is no plan.”

“I won’t let you.” Laurent hears his mouth and his throat forming the words with a shallow calm he does not feel deeply. 

Damen’s eyes clash with Laurent’s. They have never known fear, not even when enslaved. But now, there is an undertow of a raw, dark fear underneath the layers of aggression and hatred.

“Laurent,” Damen tries in the most reasonable tone he can muster. His voice still oscillates. “This is not for you alone to decide–" 

"We are to rule this kingdom together, are we not?” Laurent parries easily. Words have always served him better than any other weapons and Damen is itching for a fight.

“But we have a responsibility to those wronged, to *our* people–" 

"I agree.” And this throws Damen off balance, giving Laurent the logical advantage and he surges ahead, “Damen, I understand your anger, you know I do. But attacking without a plan will not guarantee their safety.”

Damen seems to consider this, muscles easing out of the grasps of tension holding them hostage. “What did you have in mind?”

Laurent’s mouth quirks. The plan had been simmering in the back of his mind since Nikandros’ first words on Makon’s real trade. “We have a place to start.”   
“Start on what?" 

"Your revenge.” The words are not accurate enough. “Our revenge." 

"Ours,” Damen tastes the words, chews on them, and finds them satisfactory. “How?”

“Together.” He lifts a bare shoulder. “Well, and we might need the services of Charls and Lamen once more.”

Damen smiles and his eyes hold the promises of daggers.


End file.
